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Environmentalist Elli Westeinde couldn't understand why the city’s planning committee would even consider an application from a London homebuilder to erect a single-family home in this environmentally sensitive area in west London. Trees were felled here without a permit a decade ago by a previous owner. She and others were worried the bid would set a dangerous precedent. (CHIP MARTIN, The London Free Press)

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Planning committee slammed the door shut Tuesday on a London builder’s bid to build a single-family home in a west-end environmentally sensitive area (ESA).

Had Kaizen Homes been granted permission, on the edge of wetlands connected to the Dingman Creek, it was feared the future of other ESAs might be in jeopardy.

“There isn’t even a grey area,” committee chair Joni Baechler said, as Mayor Joe Fontana wondered aloud if there was a “sliver of hope” to accommodate the builder on its nine-hectare site along Elviage Dr., just east of Woodhull Rd.

Baechler noted provincial policy forbids development in areas designated as environmentally significant and the city would face problems with the Ontario Municipal Board if it approved the plan.

“There is not even wiggle room from my perspective,” a visibly agitated Baechler said.

Fontana quickly reassured her he had simply been asking technical questions about natural boundaries. “We don’t want to make precedent,” he said. “We have to protect ESAs.”

Fontana noted, however, a refusal by the city could still leave the developer an opportunity to appeal to the OMB.

Michelle Doornbosch, agent for a numbered company, noted a previous owner had clear-cut part of the property in 2004.

“There is an open space, there is available room for the dwelling,” she said, noting the property owner is paying residential property taxes on the land zoned as open space.

She insisted the site of the proposed 3,000-square-foot home was far enough away from wetlands and she disagreed it sits within an ESA.

City planner Barb Debbert and Mark Snowsell, of the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, told the committee the project must be refused because of environmental issues.

“This property has quite a history,” Debbert said of the heavily wooded property crossed by ravines.

“There is no developable parcel on this site,” she said.

The planner said city staff would work with the applicant to provide information to help it persuade the Municipal Property Assessment Corp. to drop its residential classification so it could reduce its tax load.

In the end, the committee voted 6-0 to back staff’s refusal of the plan.